On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
When driving though Joshua Tree, you’ll see signs point to “tanks”. What are these “tanks”? A tank is usually depression in the rocky areas of the park that have an inflow of water from the surrounding area and an easily obstructed outlet. They’re in rocky areas since the ground absorption into the rock is low. Nowdays after a rain, the tanks will fill and the water will evaporate pretty quickly and there’s usually silt in the tanks that also absorbs the water. Barker Dam is a tank on steroids, is a higher dam than any of the rest and the water that collects behind it will stay for months (I’ve see photos of water behind Barker Dam in June).
There’s a nice nature trail that leads from the parking lot and over though the rocks to the dam and then loops back to the parking lot. Even with this year being exceptionally dry here in Southern California, I had hopes of seeing water, there was none. But even without clear blue water and lovely reflection, the hike was very nice with lots of rock formations with trees growing out of them, the dam and on the loop back is a flat area with a great view of snow covered Mt. San Gorgornio in the distance. I’ve taken the same approach as I did with the Ryan Ranch photos, interspersing the IR and visual photos in a chronological fashion and even made another attempt at a black and white photo.
Cool rock formation at the beginning of the trail in Aerochrome(IR).
Another rock formation, is this why they call this part of the park ‘Wonderland of Rocks’?
A cave with a porch.
The (dry) lake behind Barker Dam, you can see the water level stains on the rocks.
Downstream side of Barker Dam.
Downstream side of Barker Dam in B/W IR.
Mt. San Gorgonio with Joshua Trees in the foreground in Aerochrome.
Mary G
I’ve never seen Barker Dam dry in April, that is scary. The Adenochrome effect works really well in these shots.
Mary G
@Mary G: Guessed the Aerochrome spelling and was completely wrong and AutoCorrect isn’t helping.
J R in WV
Great desert photos, Bill.
Thanks for sharing. We have some of that kind of scenery in SE AZ also, but nothing like the area you visited.
JPL
The different rock formations are fascinating, and thank you for sharing.
Baud
I always like the color of the sky in your photos.
Laura Too
Lovely introduction to an area I need to check out. Thanks!
There go two miscreants
@Mary G: That was pretty funny though.
randy khan
@Mary G:
Who knew that autocorrect was a Hunter Thompson fan?
randy khan
What an amazing landscape.
arrieve
I love the Aerochrome! The colors are fantastic.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: Worse than “dry in April”, these photos were taken in March.
@Mary G: Yeah, autocorrect doesn’t like Aerochrome.
@J R in WV: Thanks, Joshua Tree is pretty unique.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: There’s a reason that area is called the “Wonderland of Rocks”, all sorts of interesting rock formations.
@Baud: I guess it answers the question about “what color is the sky in my world”. For the visual color shots, I was using a polarizing filter which reduces glare and makes the sky dark blue.
@Laura Too: I’ve been there pretty often, but mostly at night for astrophotography, it was nice to see it in the daylight. It’s a special place.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@There go two miscreants:
@randy khan: Autocorrect has an obvious sense of humor and respects all literary traditions.
@randy khan: I’ve only been there at night or as the sun was; setting, it’s a bit different in the daylight.
@arrieve: I do too.
Dmbeaster
The Wonderland of Rocks is a great place. A fun cross-country walk is from Barker Dam north to Indian Cove, via Rattlesnake Canyon, which requires a car shuttle. It requires a ton of boulder scrambling and can be done without technical climbing with good route finding (or bad route finding, and a lot of backtracking). The tougher section is the drop into Rattlesnake Canyon. The whole route is 5.5 miles but takes 5 to 6 hours. The rock show is amazing.
The Wonderland of Rocks is a climbing Mecca, and accessible in the winter and early spring off season for everywhere else.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dmbeaster: I could see the climbers around Intersection Rock, I’m a bit less adventurous.